Must....have...Coke...

So far my (overly ambitious) plan to cut down on coke is progressing somewhat satisfactorily...In this whole week i've only had a cup of diet coke and a can of pepsi ( does that even count). But i'm sure i'm equally catching up on those caffeine quotas with all the tea im drinking.

I've also gotten even more picky about what i eat. I'm still spending too much money at Tesco's eating 'well' ( Lotsa cheese, meats, fruit and veg ). Well, as long as improves my overall health and focus hmmn? - along with my new cardio-crazy gym regiment.

Okay in the end i wavered and did go down to the union for Soul Nation. I'm not sure weather its the fact that i dah puas clubbing kat London, or really really had no mood that day, or just the plain fact that the SN playlist is getting boringly repetetive. Either way, i'm more than happy just to consign myself to quietly toiling away in quiet, boring Westwood.

There was something else earlier i wanted to blog, but i forgot. It'll probably come back to me later.

Oh yeah i'm trying out this new thing for a while - ending every entry with a random proverb from a foreign language. Something original for a change, yesno?

Virtus sola nobilitat - Latin, "Virtue alone ennobles"

Sleepless in Warwick

eeRRgh can't tell wether its my screwed up clock, or those three mugs of tea (which is pretty much piss caffeine-wise, since i normally drink espressos ) or some other elusive reason but i just can't fall asleep right abt now. Considering that i've pretty much drained myself at the gym the other evening, ( lembik selembik cacing mati) i should have fallen asleep just like that **snaps fingers**. It really sucks to drone through your super-pancit state to read Manufacturing and do peer assesment of other groups' dragster proposals and then when you finally get to drop in bed....you blink and toss and turn for 2 hours. Time now? about 6.15 am. And i have another group meeting at 11. curses.

First Soul Nation at the union tonight where entry's restricted just to Warwick students. Apparently all through the last 2 terms there has been problems with outsiders from the general midlands area comin in and causin all sorts of trouble - they used to have like, police vans around at every last SN... we-heel big whoop. Give me oone good reason to go - If you'd excuse me i'll just spend another quiet night in with my notes. I might sound like i'm turning into a frumpy grumpy gimp, but i guess its high time i sacrificed a little more instant gratification to redeem my honor. ** do i hear a "ZigacTLy!" from about 100 miles yea south?** ;P haha kan dah puas puas to the max melepak/memasak/beromong/beronggeng di London, bah?( or is it "sih"?)

A brief respite...

Just had an Econs test today - may have been a sniveling 25 MCQ questions but it was still 20% of the module....so serious sikit la. Haha sampai buat colour coded notes by hand and brought around the pdfs on my PDA to revise - at least better prepared than last time...

So here i am, catching up on some monkeying about with my guitar while lightly skimming through last term's Mechanics and Signals stuff.....yaawn... yup its back to the boredom and tedium of workin' in Warwick. Probably be rolling down to london again soon hmn?

**yaaaAAwns again**

Already on form...

Sigh....4.15 am Monday morning and i'm already burnin brain cells finishing off some math and thermodynamics..... and of all things i got a CAD lab at 1100 for our spring powered dragster project....man today's gonna be a bitch. At least i'm ahead of the others on the econs and management revision for my test on weds. Kiasuism lives on!!

Oh funny thing today...i was just finishing tidying up the aftermath of my unpacking when i was checking on the stuff i put in the high cupboard, when the bulky picture frame with my parents pic that i missed while unpacking fell out and thwacked me right across the face, barely missing my eyes and giving me a "Squall"-ish scar through my left eye. Irrititatingly stinging but strangely cool at the same time. Morbid, hmmn?

Back to work!!! ** Retro spirited Japanese-ish tune plays in the background **

As snug as a bug....in a rug..on a pug...drinking from a jug

Finally completely settled in this morning after moving in yesterday. Everything's back in place and organized - from every single piece of clothing in the cupboard to the random mix & match decor.....now if only i can find that gruddamn chopping board. Well, that and the fact that it WAS a stupid idea to carry ALL my things (easily 90 kgs) all the way from Lakeside to Westwood. Sakit belakang nak mampos...

It was a real fun easter! Props to the 3 other stoners/pervs with me on the Amsterdam trip, all of Emperor's Gate #26 , and my kakaks at Windermere #26 (whoa coincidence). It was fun gettin' all that steam out, and shopping ( a little bit ) and cooking like a michelin star whore of a frenchman. And the picnics....fun!!!

All that fun aside.....now is the time to go for it...bumped into Pn. Mariam in London who told me that i can most probably work something out with Petronas if i manage a 1st this time.....all the more reason to redeem my honor!! Now if you'd excuse me, its back to hitting the books..

**thump thump thump thump**

Okay lame joke. Expect more random bollocks as my 'procrastinating entries' start to pile up...

Toodles!

**insert mental image of bangla tengah korek jalan**

Well while skimmin' thru my increasingly frequent work breaks i've decided that my blog needs a leetle overhaul. So bear with me while i get it back up with all the little bells and whistles!!

**sssSHHhh!** I should be workin'!

EEsh kasi can la sikit....final bit of procrastination before i get back to serious work again....promise!

Well as some of you would've figured out, i'm still languishing about in London. Between bumming about at Emperor's Gate ( and getting a leeetle bit of work actually done) and cooking and being kiddified oleh anak- anak dara kat Windemere (**grunt grunt**), i just couldn't bear to go back to Warwick early OR trundle down to Plymouth to gaze at sheep at my Cuz's.

London, Part Deux!

Nothing remarkable actually....besides the usual amusing silliness now and then at Emperor's Gate, and the shopping run for 'essentials' - really - replacement contacts, stationeries, a pinch of summer fashion and the like...

Oh yeah my darling Windemere kakaks took me out for Italian at this really cool place at Goodge Street - " Zizzi's". Really nice place and a yummy, original menu. And excellent company, of course **wink wink**. After that, i can't remember how, but i got hooked back to their place to lepak 'kejap'. Ended up with me staying over ah-gain, and making pancakes in the morning! Man that took quiite a coupla tries to get right..hahaha. Lepas tu lepak kejap kat M'sia hall for lunch(mm...nasik minyak...)and then Whiteleys for s'bucks. Sayang clubbing tak jadi.

The weather over the weekend was beautifully sunnay - which was a godsend for Su as she was planning on having a b'day picnic then. Haha kesian tau.....dahlah awal awal the 5 day forecast said it was gonna rain, half their phones broke down ( apparently the LG 3G phones do that a LOT). Nyaris nyaris kena bawak 'segerombolan' budak Pet pegi Natural History Museum. Well in the end it was a really fun, sunny Sunday aft. at Kensington Gardens followed by another mass invasion of Malaysia Hall.....

I think it was then that i was swayed to stay over for another day or two - to try my hand at making a ful(ish) Thai dinner and may-haybe get that itch to club in London outta my system. So, after again dropping by Kensington Gardens on Monday for the IC leaver's picnic (" i already left, bole makan free kan?"). I ended up cooking at Windermere again. Ambik tu - Prawn Tom Yam, Holy Basil Green Beef Curry , Som Tam ngan mango with sweet glutinous rice ( okay, so we cheated with sushi rice ). Pedas giler nak mati terlentang, but apparently sodap jugak.... puas teran keluar semua ilmu siam aku...hahaha

The next day? juust krispy kreme and clubbing with Puteri, Elle, and a coupla of their friends ( after a whole smirnoff's worth of "Fudge" ( 'puteri's the best, puteri's so cool!**cha cha**). Was reminded why i hate the clubs around the main leicester square area...eee....they're ALWAys full of dodgy, sleazy immigrant men and hardly any decent ladiess....well anyway it was good company and it was fun!!

huih huih i'm sure most of you also know full well i usually blog when i'm procrastinating. As of now i have my books, notes and slides all up around me as i try to do work. I'm hoping when i click on "publish post" i'll finally get this freakin monkey off my back and focus on getting that 1st and redeeming myself!! phoaRR!!

Till next time, buh bye!

aaand the penchant for posing continues unchecked.... 

Su's ( far left ) Birthday Picnic!! haha semua budak Pet memang poser bangattt!! 

Aja aja aja aja aja aaaaaaaahhh......

Man the first week of easter holidays was a blast. First of all, of course was IC's Malaysian Night. Very very entertaining. Whatever they said, this year's was better than the last. **Proceed to distance myself from any association with Warwick's mnite(shhh!)**. Noteworthy mentions were the intro dance ( amaaazing choreography!) the bhangra ( hilarious!) and of course the 'chicken' and 'tai chi' scenes - classic.

Over the next coupla days i managed to get a leeetle bit of shopping in, made vietnamese kuey teow soup for my UCL sistas over at Windemere(ahhhh...missed Puteri's razor sharp banter and Alina's disarmingly cute blurness), and ate way too often at the Jap centre in Picadilly.

Uw inzet, alstublieft..*(your bets, please)

Met up with Taib, Woon and Wave at Gatwick on tues for the midday flight to aaAAmsterdam!! Well....what can i say? The train ride from the airport to the town center wasn't particularly scenic ( yup...flatland, canals, flatland, canals and the occasional 10-storey-ish building). The central station and town center wasn't really that much different from any other European capital...except maybe a little more drab and there were a heckuva lot more bridges.

We got a cheap yet really nice and cozy room in a hostel just on the edge of the red light district. Just outside the hotel there were already buttloads of "coffee shops"(mmm that doesn't smell like cigarette smoke does it?) and just further down there were already some of the main tourist attractions of the city - the subtly highlighted windows and the 'cabarets' with their "variety shows". At night the main streets are quite colourful - and busy. Mostly tourists ( some already walking rather strangely, i might add), those who are more seriously perusing the 'wares' and the oddly common pusher or two. Of course, with the munchies being a pretty common ailment here pretty much every other shop is either a restaurant or a takeaway too.

Further out of the town center, there are quite a few museums ( Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, Sex museum, Marijuana museum and the like). We also took the tour of the Heineken brewery there - quite an unconventional tour....a run through of the brewery and the brewing process i can understand - but a shot at DJ-ing and 2 motion master rides ( of the bottling process and of a horse drawn beer shuttle)? Haha at least we all got free glasses in the end... We also saw a casino on the way there, so we gatal gatal just HAD to give it a shot that night......haha started with 50 euros, played a little blackjack - got pretty lucky....after some violent winning and losing got away with about 150 euros 'clean'(shh) wins.Yay......man some of those hardcore gamblers are fuckin scary.......like want to die only like that..

On the last day, i suggested that we take a coach tour to the countryside - a typical dutch fishing village that also makes clogs and cheese. But in the end not everyone managed to get up in time for that tour so we scrapped that. Sigh. Sooooo we ended up going to the casino againnn!! Not so hot this time tho.......almost lost all my winnings. So far during our 3 nights and 4 days we've had Tibetan food, lotsa chips and waffles, argentinean food and italian food....the only things dutch we know of were pancakes and raw herring - i found the latter quite nice...but we didn't bother trying the pancakes.

Yayy..London...again....

Over the next coupla of days i managed to play chef again at Windemere - hehe they asked for french and they definitely got it. Lemon mustard roast chicken with edamame and sweet potato coulis, ratatouile, potatoes gratin and creme brulee.....managed not to screw anything up althoooo the chicken took a bit longer than expected to cook..(yes thats it...masssaaaage the chicken..hee hee hee). And also tried my hand at making some Jap food for Darren's household and Lu......haha strangely i rolled the worst sushi rolls. ( but im a lot better now, serious!!)

Back in Warwick again. Boo.

Alll settled down in my cozy, tiny Cryfield room. I can't count the number of times i've leant back and banged my head on the freakin dresser. I've been pretty much spending my time doing obscenely little work, playing Unreal and Warcraft with the plonkers in Lakeside and Heronbank and sleeping too much. Bleurgh. Well, i finally managed to get back my key( that i left in the auto-locking kitchen) so i'm going to make something outta this sleepless morning and dash over to the gym! Adios, compadres!

oooh the alleyway into the red light district....ooooo 

Pretty much the same view over every bridge hmmn? 

Passed by this place on the way to the casino. Can't remember the name, but sounded a lot like "Leicester" and it was quite like it too... 

Hard Rock Cafe. Big whoop. Just came across it so take only lor... 

All the liqour and tobacco shops were really pretty - too bad i didn't have a photo of the tabacalero that looked like a harry potter shop.... 

Fin
Its finally the last day or term...The last 2 weeks have been a slowww spiral into the holiday mood, despite the goddamn Aesthetics car coursework and the Dragster initial submission. Whatever. All settled!!

A lot of hopping around in the next week.......just in a coupla hours i'm off to merry olde london to catch the IC malaysian night......followed by that flight to Amsterdam on tues ( flying back into London on Friday) and playing the rest by ear. Expect some interesting photos and such in a week-ish. Perhaps also a little ramble about the last term hmmn?

Anyhoo i better get back to topping off my packing! Have a good easter everyone!

Lazarus

Behold, for he hath risen again from umm.....4 months of not blogging? Seribu ampun tuan tuan dan puan puan, my loyal ( and also occasional) readership. I can't really say i had a really good excuse........for a while i was just going with my "dont blog while you're riled up because you'll just rant for ages " rule........then for a while i was just genuinely busy.After that i just fell out of practice. Never mind all that - whatever it is i'm back aand lovin it. Site overhaul( or at least a color scheme change?) to follow.

ANd now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.....

And in the last episode...

Listening to : Javier - October Sky
Feeling : cold/hyper/artsy

Lets see.......this is gonna be a tough recap. Lemme just try do do a quick scan, by the month.

December

• - Had X-Raya. The play i wrote was predictably rubbish, but the cast's gung-ho-ness and improvisation kinda saved it. The performances and carollers were stellar tho. Word. Spent 40 quid on a non-functioning slave at the charity auction-heh. At least its helping out some kids in some random orphanage in Kelantan so they can grow up big an strong and add to the army of narrow visionless bigots running the Opposition.
• - Made it for IC's annual Raya dinner and caught up with the merry old Londoners. Played domestic servant ( or at least chef and snoring machine) to 26 Underground for a week while they still ran about on their term time activities(smirk).
• - Back in Malaysia - rocked the casbah with the apiitians and other ex-cemps & company having their messed-up southern hemisphere summer. Lotsa old-school fun, late nights, cocktalking and the like. Strewth! Nostalgia to follow.
• - All those ulcers? I swear they dissappeared overnight after *that*. Must be the shoulder beating while driving or the slamming doors hmmn?
• - Waris' 29th! All hail the silver maracas of doom!
• - Actually got pretty wasted over new year's eve, courtesy of Cyril. ( lovely merlot, shiraz, grigio, brrgl wtf was that vintage againnn{stumble}). Lovely muruku as well- cmon they HAD to have crack in em - nobody could stop!!! cue the silver maracas of doom again!

January

• - Got a guy to swap seats so could kacau Charl for the flight back. Against insurmountable odds, guess who got a seat directly behind me? Yup. Never stood for so long in the plane. And guess you could say i had a sampler of whats it like to be in the mile-high club. Without all the fun bits. While being incessantly harangued (Defn: Harangue - A speech or piece of writing characterized by strong feeling or expression; a tirade.) Stupidly believed all of it. Caved in a week-ish later.
• - Warwick Malaysian Night madness begins. Rehearsals almost every other night. Sarah was in charge of the play, i was in charge of the intro dance and interval performances. Everything else heavily delegated , such as dikir and dinner performances. Arrangements held quite well so far.
• - Barely three weeks in again, the drama resumed. Same reason, same circumstances. Lo and behold, the ulcers return. Vowed never to make same mistake THRICE. Pfoof ulcers gone. Seriously.

February

• - Needless to say, rehearsals got kinda weird, expecially since they're now everyday. Somehow managed to get all the dances prepped in time, thanks to the other choreographers! Props to huey chin, nynna and also shivani!
• - CNY 2005. Made steamboat and Pimms for everyone. Deja vu, no? Major debauchery followed, as one would expect after a bottle of vodka, JD, and red absinthe. Hilarious photos.
• - Last week of rehearsals. Dances coming along fine, just some last minute hoo hah about costumes due to the props manager mostly too busy poking her nose in dikir barat. Thankfully someone put her in her place (cough ME cough)! Props again to shiv, sangeeta andfor getting the costumes sorted!
• - The week leading up to mnite was kinda hectic, what with 2 lab deadlines also adding to the confusion.
• - 19 feb - Mnite!! Everything went down well except for some technical glitches with the mikes. A big hand to all the talent involved, especially you singers! Note to self : make sure next year's play does NOT go on for a full hour , especially if said play is a talkie contemporary with no musical interludes. ( skzzz....snoorgkkhh...haahhHH time to go backstage again?) Thanks to all of ya who came down from far and wide!
• - Msian night withdrawal syndrome? didn't have any last year, and i aint gonna start now niggaa! Finally got to play Half life 2: i think i picked up a coupla signs that i might be playing a bit too much- besides the sleep loss, of course( dont worry if you dont get it , you most probably wont unless you've played too)I swear i didn't rip this off any other site:

1. Everytime you hear a chopper in the distance you instinctively think of tapping the '5' key twice and doing a 360 of the sky while backing into a roofed building.
2. Everytime you see a barrel, crate, or god forbid, an empty bottle you feel the urge to reach out with something and throw it far far away or at someone.
3. When you hear 'crabs' you think 'zombie' instead of 'chilli' or god forbid, anything else(scratch scratch).

More recently.....

The Soul Nation this weekend was a helluva lot better than the last. For one, large women grinding into you out of nowhere wasn't nearly as bad as dodgy looking men asking you where you're from (shudder). Mostly it was a heck lot better cos a lot more people we knew went. Followed up on my promise to cook for the dancers ( made Indian!) and had a bit of a booze up after dinner and before soul nation. From the way we were all laughing cock before any actual drinking you'd guess we've already emptied all the liqour in Westwood. After the rollocking Soul Nation we had a typical Amar sleepover ( where no one really sleeps) where everyone polished off the leftovers, had some tea and watched eurotrip, of all things.

And that explains why i wasn't able to get up in time to dash to London for UCL's mnite. Sorrrryyyy Elle, Puteri, Alina and all you other UCL peeps! Nanti pegi London i belanja Haagen Dasz aaah! At least the Saturday wasn't wasted - we were just randomly milling around Bar Food playing foosball when some random nice vietnamese folks brought us into FunkAsia for free ( it was an MSA, singsoc, vietnamese, chinese, thai, pinoy and HK thingy). Good show, free drinks, and the quintissential slightly malu-fying Malaysian party games!

Two more weeks to go to the end of term.....we've already got a trip to amsterdam planned!! Anyone want some space cakes?(wink wink).

Again, sorrr-hay for the long hiatus and the loooong update. Select photos to follow( and some schweet old-school ranting too)!

After the last soul nation! 

The good 'ol Linstead posse.. 

After Mnite!